My husband and I have been missionaries for 30 years in Spain and Venezuela.  We have tried many ways of reaching people with the Gospel.  Some of the ways have worked, others not.  Two years ago we returned to Spain to work as a team with our children and their spouses.   As we serve the Lord over many years, there is a tendency to keep on doing things the same way.  We think our way is the only way.  We are so excited that God has allowed us to be part of a team in which each member is excited about doing a work for God and is attempting to try new methods to reach lost souls for Christ.  Since they are young, they understand how this generation thinks and what things will make them interested in hearing the Gospel.  We live in the city of Parla, with approximately 120,000 people.  We are committed to making sure that every person in this city has an opportunity to hear the Gospel many times. 

Last year we produced a Gospel DVD and put one of them in every home in Parla (over 38,000).  This year we are handing out Gospels of John and Romans along with a Gospel tract and an invitation to our church.   We would like to put some piece of literature or DVD into every home every year so that people know that we exist, where we are  and that we want them to know Christ.   We also have a webpage where people can readarticles on the Bible and see a Gospel presentation.  We have also put a monthly advertisement of our ministry in a local newspaper that reaches all of our city.  The Lord has also allowed us to rent a billboard at the entrance to our city with an advertisementto our church.  Our job is to share the Gospel with everyone.  We leave the results up to God.  So far 2 families have come and been saved and baptized because they received the Gospel DVD, one family has been saved after finding our webpage and another family came because of the Gospel of John and Romans that they received in their mailbox.  It is exciting to see what God is doing.  We will keep on trying every method to reach Parla and other cities with the Gospel.

Discipleship truly transformed our ministry many years ago.  30 years ago as new missionaries we did not know much about Biblical discipleship.  Of course when people got saved we would help them as much as possible in their spiritual growth and we would encourage them to be faithful to church so that they would hear the teaching and preaching of the Word of God.  But so many of the believers would get discouraged or would start causing division or would leave the church and take others with them.  We had fruit, but that fruit would not remain.  During our  second furlough we were in one of our supporting churches that showed us Biblical discipleship and how to do it.  We went back to Spain for our third term excited about trying discipleship.  What a change.  Our ministry began to grow, Christians were maturing in the things of God, they had a desire to serve God and we truly began to see fruit that remained and still remains til this day.  These mature believers were then ready to become leaders and we trained them in our Bible Institute and  many of them are serving the Lord as missionaries and pastors today.  When we moved to Venezuela we immediately began discipling new believers and the same thing happened.  We left a church in Valencia with mature Christians that have a desire to serve God with their lives and the church is growing and thriving even today.  Since returning to Spain, we have made discipleship a vital part of our ministry.  Since we are working as a team we have more people to disciple the new believers and we are able to spend valuable time with each one of them and help them grow in the Lord. The material you use is not the key, but the time spent with these new believers, teaching them the Bible, praying for them, helping them through their spiritual growth, answering questions, visiting them and inviting them to our house.  We make it our responsibility to make sure that the person we are discipling becomes a mature servant of Christ and that he or she knows the Word of God and is able to disciple other new Christians.  Our next goal will be to take their training to the next level and begin preparing leaders for the ministry.  We pray that God will help us to train pastors and missionaries to continue the work here in Spain and around the world. 

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

What a joy it is for us to again communicate with you, our faithful supporters and prayer warriors. We are overwhelmed by your faithfulness and generosity even during these difficult economic times. May the Lord richly bless each of you as you labor for our Lord in your specific churches. We appreciate everything you do for us and never take you for granted.

We have finally been able to finish distributing the Gospel DVDs in every home in Parla! In all we distributed 38,883 DVDs. We have about 5000 DVDs left that we are going to distribute in the town nearest to Parla. We appreciate all the monetary gifts given to fund this project. In our last newsletter we mentioned two families who had come to church because they received the DVD. We are so excited to tell you that both couples are now saved and being discipled. Paco and Veronica are our first complete Spanish family to be saved! Amen! Carlos and Olenka (a young peruvian couple) are also saved! Lord willing we will be having our 3rd baptismal service on March 27 so that these new converts can take this step of obedience.

We also asked you to pray for the salvation of Angie, Eduardoʼs wife. Our daughter, Deanna, began having Bible classes with her and Angie told her that she had been saved years ago in her home country of Paraguay, but had gotten away from the Lord. She now wants to follow the Lord along with her husband. Please continue praying for her spiritual growth.

What a blessing it is each Sunday for us to go to church and see these new believers come, with a sincere hunger for the Word of God. Each one of them is being discipled and each one is taking steps towards spiritual maturity. We are amazed at what God is doing in their lives. Thank you so much for praying for them.

Our next outreach project is to distribute books of John and Romans along with an invitation to our church and a good quality Gospel tract, to every home in Parla. We are already meeting every Monday to staple these packets together. Very soon we will begin distributing them. Please pray that as people receive these packets, they will read them and that we will be able to to reach some of them for Christ. We will continue trying every method possible so that more people will come to know our Lord as their Savior.

We have two more prayer requests. We have mentioned Sonia before. She was saved several months ago and baptized. She is not able to come to church every Sunday because of her job, but whenever she is free on Sundays, she is in church. Please pray for her son, Javier, who is serving a 3 year sentence in a prison in Aranjuez. I was able to go to the prison this past Saturday to get to know him and begin a friendship in order to share the Gospel with him. Please pray for his salvation. Also pray for a lady named Doris, who has come twice to the church, who has serious physical problems, but her main need right now is to know Christ. Keep on praying for us and the ministry here in Spain. God is working and we are excited!

In His Service,

Julio and Andrea Velasquez

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

Our team is finally together in Spain! What a blessing! On November 30, David and Favianna arrived here with their children! Thank you so much for praying for them! Now we are ready to work together in reaching souls for Christ here in Spain.

As we approach Christmas we are planning several activities, one of which is a Christmas program at the church on the 19th of December. Please pray that many people will attend
including some lost families that we have contacted over the past few months. Also pray for me (Julio) as I will be having hernia surgery on the 17th of December in Madrid. Pray that I will recover quickly so that I can get busy in the ministry again.

As we look back on this year 2010, we are thrilled at what God has done through us here. We were able to rent a building for our church, fix it up and then begin services back in March. We were able to distribute over 35,000 Gospel DVDs throughout the city of Parla. We were able to put up a billboard with an advertisement about the DVD and also put ads in a local newspaper. Through these outreach endeavors we have seen many come to our church, call us by phone and contact us by way of the internet. We have been able to baptize 5 converts, 3 of which were baptized just last month. Pray for the families of these new converts. Stefan, since his conversion, has suffered rejection from his wife and family as well as not being able to find a job. Pray for him that God will give him the courage to keep on going for Christ. Pray that his wife, Florina will get saved soon. Eduardo got saved and baptized, but his wife is not saved yet. Pray for Angie that she will be convicted of her sins and come to Christ. Sonia was saved and recently baptized and she desperately needs a new job that will allow her to attend church services on Sundays. Paco and his wife Veronica have been attending church for over 2 months now, after receiving the DVD in their home. Pray that they will come to Christ. There is a new couple, Carlos and Olenka, who also received a DVD in their home and have begun coming to our services. They really seem interested and we pray that they also will come to the Lord.

We recently received a call from a man in the Canary Islands who found our website and was interested in growing in the Lord. He is a Christian but does not have a church where he can attend. He along with several of his friends have been meeting on Sunday mornings and watching our church services via the internet. Pray for this group that they will grow in the Lord and in the future be able to form a local church.

As we approach the new year, we have plans to distribute portions of the Bible to every home in Parla. We also want to continue discipling new converts and we would like to produce another DVD presenting the Gospel in a clear way. Our desire is to serve our Lord and reach the lost here in Parla, throughout Spain and then to other parts of the world. Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful monthly support. We would like to thank those of you who helped with the special DVD project and for the many emails and letters we have received with words of encouragement. May the Lord richly bless each of you as you serve our Lord there in your city.

In His Service,
Julio and Andrea Velasquez

This past weekend I was reminded of what a privilege it is to know Christ as Savior and to be able to serve Him and show others how they can know Christ.   My husband and I were privileged to travel to the Basque region of Spain this past weekend. We enjoyed the fellowship with fellow believers, and marveled at the beauty in that area of the country.  God allowed us to share with these believers our evangelistic project that we have been using here in Parla.  They wanted to know how they could evangelize their city and we showed them the DVD we have been using and how it works.  They liked the project and are planning on using it in the near future.  We were able to be in three churches and on Sunday evening my husband preached a message which included a clear presentation of the Gospel.  We also showed the Gospel DVD that we have been using.  After the service my husband noticed a lady at the back of the church that was crying.  After inquiring about her, he called me over to talk with her and try to help her.

She was visibly shaken and very moved by what she had heard in the message.  She told me she had never heard a message like that before .  She has been a Catholic all her life and even has family members who are priests and nuns, but that no one had ever explained to her about her sinful condition and need of a Savior.  I spent the next 20 minutes sharing with her the wonderful message of salvation using Scripture and my own personal testimony.  Afterwards I asked her if she would like to repent of her sins and turn her life over to Christ and she immediately responded that she would.  There was an urgency in her eyes and a desire to accept God’s precious gift of salvation.  After praying, there were tears of joy coming down her eyes as she realized that her sins were forgiven and she was saved!  Afterwards I showed her verses on security of salvation and encouraged her to read the Bible, attend church and grow in the Lord.  I also introduced her to a faithful lady in the church who promised to help her in her spiritual growth.  Her face was radiant and it looked like a weight had been lifted off of her.  This was the first time she had ever attended the church and it was her time to find Jesus.  What a miracle of God’s redeeming grace.  What a privilege to be used of God to point lost souls to Christ!  This lady’s name is Clementina.  Please pray for her spiritual growth in the days and months ahead.   

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,
What a blessing it is to serve our Lord Jesus Christ!  Since our last newsletter we have had many answers to prayer in our personal lives and also in the ministry.  Both of us have been able to renew our resident visas for another two years.  Amen!  My leg has also healed completely and I am able to walk well and do the ministry.

We asked prayer for Stefan to come to know Christ as His personal Savior, and about 6 weeks ago he came into church on Sunday morning and said he had some exciting news for us.  He then proceeded to tell us how on that previous Monday he had repented of his sins and trusted in Christ alone to save him.  Amen!    Since that time we have begun weekly discipleship classes with him, have visited him in his home and have seen his wife and two sons visit the church.  Please pray for all of his family as Stefan desires for them to be saved!   
Update on our DVD project!

We have now distributed 23,000 DVDs.  This means that potentially  69,000 people have had the opportunity to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.  We have been duplicating more DVD’s over the past few weeks and by the middle of September we will be ready to continue distributing DVDs to the rest of the homes in Parla. Pray for the funds necessary to finish this project.  We have received love offerings from 2 of our churches these past two months and we are truly appreciative.  Click here to see the video update on our DVD project.

We have also placed a very large billboard at the entrance of our city with a message about the DVD, asking people if they have seen it and advertising our website.  We will change this billboard approximately every three months with something thought-provoking for those seeking for the truth.   We have  recently purchased space in our city’s monthly newspaper.  We will have one-fourth of a page to write whatever we want every month.  This paper is distributed free of charge to 30,000 people in our city.  Pray for new contacts through this outreach.  We want to continue sowing the seed of the Word of God in every home in Parla.  Recently a young man contacted us, requesting a free Bible.  His name is Eduardo and he had seen our website and was interested in what he had read.  We were able to visit him in his home and even though he lives one hour away from our city, he came to the service last Sunday.  Praise the Lord he trusted  Christ as his personal Savior this week!  He is so excited about growing in the Lord. We will begin discipleship classes with him next week.    Last Sunday we had a very special service in our church with an emphasis on the Family.  We sent invitations to all the contacts we have made recently.  We were so thrilled Sunday morning when 41 people attended the service.  We were filled to capacity.  Amen!  Now, we understand that people will come to special services and  maybe not come again, but we now have more people to pray for, visit, and encourage to find out the truth from God’s Word.  The seed has been planted, we are watering and we know that in God’s time, there will be a harvest of souls. 
Continue praying for David and Favianna as they have submitted their papers for obtaining visas to come to Spain and are waiting for approval.  They are still planning on coming here on the 1st of December.  We are excited about having all the team here in Spain to serve our Lord together.  Thank you again for your faithful prayers and financial support.  You also are part of the team for reaching souls for Christ here in Spain.

In His Service, 
Julio and Andrea Velasquez

     How important is one solitary soul to God?  Is God interested in reaching out to a handful of people living in a remote village in darkest Africa or in the jungles of South America?  Is God interested in the single person that a missionary in Europe has been able to reach during his first four years on the field?  Does God truly want us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, or does He just want us to go where we can reach the most people in the shortest amount of time?   We see in many places in Scripture where God was interested in individuals.  He sent Phillip to the backside of the desert because there was one man who was searching for God and needed the help of a Christian to show him the way.  Jesus himself had to go through Samaria because there was a woman at the well that needed to know that she was a sinner and in need of salvation.  Many times Jesus preached to multitudes of people, but He was always interested in each and every individual soul in need of Christ.

       As missionaries we do not pick the place where we desire to serve God.  It would be easy and advantageous for us to peruse through world atlases and travel catalogs and find the most beautiful places to be a missionary.  We could find places where the weather is always nice, the food is delicious, the people are all friendly and desirous to be saved and where there are good doctors and great roads.  But that is not the way God works.  He speaks to us with His still small voice and puts such a burden in our hearts for a place to serve Him.  it doesn't make sense to root up a family with small children, pack them into a mini-van, take them over 200,000 miles of interstates to visit over 300 churches over several years, then have that family move to a god forsaken country where living conditions are not very good and where good doctors are hard to come by.  Worse yet is the family that goes to a country where the people are not interested in hearing the Gospel or where the law prohibits a person from sharing his faith with others.  In our own understanding these things don't make sense.  But we cannot lean on our own understanding.  God is interested in every person on this earth hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some missionaries go to countries where the people are very receptive to the Gospel and in a matter of 4 short years, they are able to establish a good church, train leaders and have those leaders prepared to begin more works.  Many of these missionaries are able to start 30 or 40 churches in their years on the mission field and lead thousands of people to Christ.  Others spend 30 or 40 years in one church and lead only a handful of people to Christ.  Is this a waste of time and money?  Of course not.   

      Having been brought up on the mission field as a young child, I have spent almost all my life working in missions.  We have served in Latin America as well as in Europe.  We have seen the difference between working in a third world country and working in a modern developed country.  We have worked with poor people and have also worked with middle/upper class people.  There are so many contrasts and differences, but God has been interested in each person we have been able to reach for Him.  In 1992 while serving in Spain, we were able to see a young couple come to Christ in our church.  Their names are Alberto and Paqui Puente.  After discipling them and helping them grow in their Christian faith, they went to our Bible Institute and desired to serve the Lord full time.  A few years later, they moved to the States where Alberto pastored a Hispanic church in Alabama.  The church has grown and out of that church many have been called into the ministry.  They are sending missionaries around the world now, including two of their sons who will be returning to Spain as missionaries within the year. Even though many others trusted Christ as their Savior, if Alberto and Paqui had been the only ones  who had gotten saved during our first 14 years in Spain, it would have been worth it.  God loves every single person and He died for every single person in this world.  Our job is to obey God and share the Gospel with every person that God puts in our path.  Whether you live in a metropolitan area in New York or in a small rural town in Wyoming or in a mega city like Mexico City or in a jungle village in the Amazon, whether you can reach thousands with the Gospel or only a handful in your lifetime, we are to keep on obeying God and reaching  souls ,one by one, for whom Christ died.  

My husband and I will celebrate our 30th year as missionaries this coming December.
We have served in Spain and Venezuela.  In these two countries we have been able to participate in the start of 3 Baptist churches.  I remember each one of these churches and the excitement we felt as people began attending services, making professions of faith in Jesus Christ and growing in the Lord.  We look back at how these churches are still preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how people are still getting saved and how young men are being called into the ministry from these churches.  There is something very exciting and awesome about beginning a new church!

We are now in the process of beginning again!  A little over one year ago we arrived in Spain once more and moved to the city of Parla.  During this year we have, along with the other members of our team, studied the city, strategized as to how we can reach the city for Christ, rented a building and made the necessary repairs to use it for services.  We have also done a lot of praying, planning and preparing.  In April we finally opened the doors to our building to begin having Sunday morning services.  At that point we had one lady who came faithfully every Sunday.  She has been a real blessing in our church as every week she witnesses to people she meets and invites them to our services.  She is very excited about seeing the work grow.  Right now we are laying the groundwork for the ministry.  We are evangelizing the city, trying to share the Gospel with every person in the city of Parla.    As with past experiences in starting churches, we know that if we do what God has told us to do, then He will bring the increase.

We are excited, just like we were 30 years ago when we first began our missionary endeavors.  We don’t know how fast the work will grow, who will get saved, who will remain in the church serving God, who will be called into the ministry, but we know that God is going to do His work here.  We are just vessels to be used by God to do His work of planting the seed of the Word of God.  Then God will give the harvest. 
How exciting it was when two months ago a man entered the church to find out who we are.  That man has since, come faithfully every Sunday, brought his wife and son and three weeks ago, trusted Christ as His Savior.  Two weeks ago, a middle aged lady came to know Christ as her Savior in her home while we were visiting with her.  These are the firstfruits of the work in Parla.  How exciting!  Already we can see some new contacts whom we are working with and who seem interested in knowing more about God.  We are using all the means we can to get the Gospel into homes, through DVD’s, tracts, billboards, webpages, newspapers, etc.  We are beginning to see fruit and it is the most exciting experience that a servant of God can feel.  This is just the beginning of what God is going to do.  We have the same promise that God gave to the apostle Paul in Acts 18:9-10, “..Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.” 

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” As Christmas time approaches again, we are reminded of God’s unspeakable gift, the gift of His dear son, our Lord Jesus Christ!  What a joy it is to serve our Lord and Savior and we are so grateful for the free gift of salvation which He gave to us and which we share with the lost here in Spain.  We are excited about having our first Christmas back in Spain after so many years of being away.  We are happy to be able to be part of the Spanish Christmas traditions and to eat all their traditional Christmas foods, but greater than all of these joys is the joy that we will have to share the gift of God with so many of them.  We are almost finished duplicating 18,500 DVD’s which contain a clear presentation of the Gospel and very soon we will be putting them into the mailboxes so that 18.500 households will be able to listen to the Gospel, many for the first time in their lives. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of needing your prayers so that as the people receive these DVD’s they will watch them, listen to the message and that the Holy Spirit will begin a work in their hearts and that many will trust Christ as their personal Savior.  Will you please partner with us to pray for this project?   Our goal is to not only distribute these DVD’s to the city of Parla, but to at least 10 more neighboring cities over the next few years.  We need your prayers and we need money in order to purchase more DVD’s.  Will your help this Christmas Season?

We have a building for our future church! Praise the Lord we have found a building in a strategic area of the city which is on a busy street and only one block away from public transportation.  We have much work to do now in order to get it ready for services.  It is one large room with one small room that we will use for an office.  We are needing at least one more room and so we will be building two walls to form a nice size room.  We also have to install heat and air conditioning.  Then we will fill in holes in the walls, paint, lay carpet and put up a sign on the outside wall.  In January we are planning on starting English classes and piano classes in order to make contacts.  Through these activities, we are praying that the Lord will allow us to share the Gospel with them and that many will be saved.   We are praying that we will be able to open the building for use by the beginning of January.  Please pray with us about this. 

New Contacts! Please pray for new contacts that we have made.  We have neighbors who are from Colombia and they are very much interested in the Gospel.  I have also had the opportunity to witness to several Muslims and have made friends with a Muslim man who lives in our apartment complex. They need Christ!  Will you pray for their salvation?

The Family is Growing! We are very happy to announce the birth of our third grandchild.  Hayden Mikaela Velasquez was born on November 5 and she is our first granddaughter. David and Favianna are thrilled with this special gift from God and Ian is a very proud older brother.  We are so anxious for them to arrive in Spain to help us in the work.  Please pray that they will be able to raise the remaining 40% of their support  in a very short time so that they can join us in the ministry. 

We want to thank all of you for your faithful support over the years.  We have been missionaries for 29 years and God has been faithful in supplying our needs.  He has used you to supply that need.  Thank you for your prayers, letters, gifts and monthly support.  We love and appreciate all of you.  May the Lord richly bless you this coming year as you serve our Lord.

In His Service,                                                                                                                         

Julio and Andrea Velasquez

September 2009

Dear Co-laborers in Christ,

We are close to the end of a very hot summer.  Most days temperatures were in the high 90’s and nights would be very warm also.  Spaniards usually enjoy one full month of vacation time, either in July or August.  Now most people have returned home and within two weeks school will begin again.  This is the time we have been waiting for to begin distributing the DVD’s with a Gospel message.  We would like to thank all of those individuals and churches who have sent offerings for this project.  This will really help us purchase more DVD’s. If you have not sent in an offering yet, there is still time, since this is an ongoing project.  We will continue to give out these DVD’s until every home in Parla and the surrounding areas has heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have been looking for a storefront building to rent in order to begin church services.  Most of the places we have looked at measure around 800-900 sq. feet and cost anywhere from $1200 and up each month.  Please pray that we will find the right place that God has for us.  Our desire is to use this building for church services as well as discipleship classes, English classes and counseling sessions.  We will use any means to reach people here in Parla with the Gospel.

While attending a Baptist church in Madrid over the past few months, we met a lady named Isabel, who had begun attending the church.  She was travelling over 2 hours every service to attend the services, but when she found out that we will begin services in Parla she was so excited because she lives fairly close to our city.  We thought she was already a believer in Christ, but last week while attending family camp, she realized that she was a religious person, but had never put her faith in Christ for salvation.  Now she is a true believer and is excited about attending our church as soon as we begin having services.  She wants to bring her family and friends to the services also. Praise the Lord for our first member in this new ministry.

As we mentioned in our last letter, Spain is full of immigrants from all over the world.  I have had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with at least 40 people over the past few weeks representing 8 different countries including Spain.   Please pray that the seed that was sown in their hearts will take root and many will come to know Christ as their personal Savior. One great blessing in my life this month was the salvation of my brother in Peru.  I have been praying for him for 34 years and he finally trusted Christ as his Savior.  He had gone to Cuzco to have surgery and we contacted a missionary there to see if he could share the Gospel with him.  He sent a man from his church who became friends with my brother and then shared how he could get saved.  Pray now as he returns home that he will be able to find a good church in order to grow spiritually.

Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful monthly support.  The Euro is getting strong again and makes it even more expensive for us to live here, but we know that God will continue to provide our needs.

May the Lord richly bless each of you as you serve Him.

In His Service,

Julio and Andrea Velasquez